Hidden
by Pagan Ianthe
Summary: Blaise and Luna are in love, but Luna is suddenly pushing Blaise away and he can't figure out why - nor can he get her to tell him.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Harry Potter characters; they are the creations of JK Rowling and the property of WB, Bloomsbury Books and Scholastic.  
**Author Note:** Please enjoy and I love hearing from the people who enjoy (or don't).

**Hidden  
**  
Luna sat down at her desk and, ignoring the cramp in her sore fingers, began to write the front page article for Underground at Hogwarts, the paper she had been running for nearly three years.

The quill she used was charmed to copy whatever she did on the original parchment down onto 400 others, which saved her much time, and it was something she had to thank the Weasley twins for. She had told the boys what she needed and they had designed it for her, at cost of course. This was her second magicopy quill, and she knew that she wouldn't have been able to run the paper without it.

"Are you finished yet?" Ginny knocked on the door to the cubicle in the second floor girls' toilets that together they had converted into a small, discreet office. "Hermione's on her rounds tonight and you know that she wants to wring your neck for that article you did about her and Ron last month."

Luna pointed her wand at the pile of parchment on the floor and it shrank to fit in the matchbox in her pocket, "No, she wants to kill Selima Mars." With a wry smile on her face, Luna put the wards back up on her 'office' and followed Ginny out of the toilets. "Do you know which way she went?" Hermione may not know who was behind the underground newspaper that had revealed the truth behind the 'prefect meetings' that the new headgirl had organised, but she was going her best to find out, and being caught out after curfew wouldn't do much to help hide Luna's identity.

"Up to the Astronomy Tower, she always meets Ron there before they do their rounds." Peering round the corner using a small pocket mirror that her mum had given her, Ginny beckoned Luna to follow her, and the two girls quickly made it up the stairs to the entrance of Ravenclaw Tower. "I'll see you tomorrow for the mail out," she whispered as she ran back up the stairs to the seventh floor.

"Out after curfew, Lovegood?" The voice was deep, husky, very male, and it sent shivers down Luna's spine. She took a step back towards the open portrait hole, her nerveless fingers already reaching for her wand.

"What do you want, Zabini?" her voice was so quiet that Blaise had to strain to hear what she was saying, but her anger and irritation were clear in her eyes.

"Do you really think you should be talking to the head boy like that?" he raised one eyebrow as he took a step closer to her, one hand raised to brush a curl of hair from Luna's forehead. "After all I could give you detention." The words were a sigh of warm breath against her cheek as he leaned down and grazed his lips over her sensitive ear lobe. "And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

"I don't have time for this, Zabini. I've got to get to my room, it _is_ after curfew after all." She took another step and found herself trapped between Blaise and the wall. Her heart was pounding fast and loud in her chest; her hands were clammy and shaking slightly.

"Why do we always have to play these games," Blaise sighed, wishing that he could get her to be honest with him about what they were to each other.

"I'm not playing any games. I told you last week, I can't do this anymore." Ignoring him as he called after her, Luna crawled quickly through the portrait hole, relieved that the common room was empty.

After slamming his fist against the wall in frustration, Blaise stormed off in the direction of the entrance to the kitchens, sure that he would be able to catch a few people out after curfew that he could sentence to detention with Filch.

~*~

The next morning Luna reluctantly walked down the stairs to the great hall for breakfast. She had slept very little, her eyes were only half-open, her hair done up in a sloppy plait that brushed the middle of her back as she walked.

She sat down at the end of the table just in time for the post to arrive. She wasn't expecting anything so she didn't even bother to look up when a proud dark grey and black owl swooped overhead, dropping something into the empty bowl in front of her.

"Look at that," she could hear someone saying at the other end of the table. "Did you see? Loony got some mail." Shrugging off the comment, and the others that followed, Luna picked up the letter and put it to the side of her bowl, eagerly digging into the porridge that suddenly appeared in the white china depths.

Even as she took a bite of the hot buttered toast she had _accioed_ from the plate at the top of the table, Luna could feel the letter calling to her. She desperately wanted to read it. She didn't recognise the seal on the back, but an inkling of suspicion filled her mind.

Luna had never been so relieved that it was Saturday. She was so tired still, and there was so much to do for the Underground that she was eager to get away from the Great Hall and the eagle eyes of her fellow housemates. Quickly drinking down the last mouthfuls of her tepid tea, she stood up, grabbed the letter from the table and headed out of the hall, desperate to find somewhere quiet and private.

Her search for that elusive privacy found Luna in her little toilet office on the second floor. Sitting down on the transfigured chair, she set a ward on the door that even Ginny at her best wouldn't be able to break through, and then broke the seal on the envelope.

The letter was beautiful. It wasn't so much a love letter as it was poetry, and the magnificence of it brought tears to her eyes. She had never known that such a remarkable soul lay in a man who gave off such a dark aura.

_I can't keep pretending that I don't even know you_

The words blurred on the page as her eyes filled with salty tears, but she continued to read, going back again and again to that first line. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Luna swished and flicked the wards away and headed for the lake where she knew that he would be waiting for her. There was a small cove where they always met when they wanted to be alone. No one knew about them, not even Ginny, and she was Luna's best friend.

Sitting down on a rock overlooking the dark rippling water of the lake, Luna threw a rock onto the almost smooth surface and watched as it jumped twice before sinking out of sight. The silence forced her to think about everything that had happened since the summer, since the first time she had realised that Blaise Zabini was more than just another Slytherin bully.

/Flashback/

Luna had been home for two weeks and was growing increasingly bored of the inactivity. Her dad was constantly gone on some research trip for the _Quibbler_ and, now that Luna was older, he felt that she was perfectly capable of looking after herself.

Sitting in the shade of the large willow in the front garden, she picked up the most recent letter that Ginny had sent her, and started to read through it. Her eyes were slightly misty as she realised how much she was starting to miss the company of other people when, before, she had been so eager to be alone.

"Well, what do we have here?" The voice was vaguely familiar, but Luna had trouble placing it. She looked up as a shadow fell over the page she was reading, a grimace crossing her face when she recognised the face that went with the voice.

"I think it might be a letter, Zabini," Luna glared at him when it didn't seem like he was taking any notice of the subtle hint in her voice that was telling him to go away.

"I was talking about this," ignoring the glass in her tone, Blaise leaned forward and touched his fingers lightly to her cheek.

Moving back quickly, as though his touch burned her skin, Luna gasped as she fell off the chair she had been sitting comfortably on. She stood up slowly, her hip hurting where she had hit it on the chair frame.

Seeing that she was in pain, Blaise reached out and offered her some support, not surprised when she ignored him, instead scowling at him. "Just go away." Taking an uncomfortable step towards the house, "I don't know what you're doing here anyway." She wasn't normally so abrasive and she could see that her attitude had shocked him, but she didn't care. She could already feel the bruise on her hip increasing in size and all she wanted was to get inside and put some witch hazel on it.

Wincing when Luna limped towards the front door of the picturesque cottage set back a fair distance from the road, Blaise took another step closer to her, wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her into the lounge. He guided her into a high-backed comfy chair and stood in the middle of the low-ceilinged room, studying the detailed cornices, wishing that she would break the silence. "You don't have to stay here you know," she sneered uncharacteristically, wishing he would just go.

"I know," he responded to her jibe quietly, suddenly fascinated with the angry glint in her eyes. He bit his lip to stop a stunned gasp from escaping when Luna shifted slightly in the chair and started to push her shorts down her legs. He wondered why he had never noticed before that she had coltish long legs, slender but rather toned for a girl who never got involved with sport at school.

"Well don't just stand there like a statue. If you're going to insist on staying you could at least help me." She had no idea why she was being such a harridan, but something about his presence in the small cottage was unsettling her.

"Do you have some arnica?" he cleared his throat several times, his lips going dry as Luna pushed the shorts off over her feet and they dropped to the floor, the metal buttons clicking loudly in the silence as they fell against the floorboards.

"I think there might be some in the bathroom." She had to grin as he went off looking for the bathroom without even thinking to ask her where it was. The cottage, like Ginny's home, the Burrow, was like a maze. If she was going to be completely truthful though, Luna liked the idea of him being lost, it would give her a few moments to pull herself together, regain whatever sense she had lost when she hadn't thrown him out.

Having looked around in the maze that the cottage had turned out to be, Blaise realised that he was either going to have to go back to Luna and admit that he had no idea where he was going, or use magic. Deciding on the latter of the two choices, he stood in the middle of the winding hallway and put out his left hand, "_Accio_ arnica." Within seconds a delicate, sunflower yellow jar was in his hands.

By the time he found his way back to the main room, Luna was sitting on the edge of the chair examining the bruise that was quickly turning an angry purple on her hip. Sucking in a deep breath, Blaise walked over to her and, after dipping his long fingers into the jar of cream, started to rub the cream gently into the discoloured skin, careful to be gentle.

Unsure quite what he was doing, and unable to fight the sudden desire he had to explore her, Blaise knelt down beside the chair and pressed his lips to her thigh. He heard as she inhaled a sharp breath. Ignoring the little warning voice in his head yelling that he was doing something very wrong, he continued to press light butterfly kisses to her exposed skin, moving slowly until he was between her legs, his lips caressing the sensitive skin of her stomach.

"Fight me," he groaned even as his hands were at the waistband of her panties, tugging them down to reveal the curly thatch of hair at the juncture of her thighs.

Spearing her fingers through his hair, Luna closed her eyes, the words torn out of her, "I can't, you're being so gentle." The words were a plaintive cry.

His tongue dipped into her belly button, causing Luna to giggle and twist her fingers in his hair, tugging him even closer to her. "Of course I am," he growled the words against her skin; his fingers tugging her panties down until they were tangled round her ankles. "I'm seducing you."

The light touch of his fingers between her legs sent shivers of delight and fear down her spine, she didn't have the energy or the desire to fight him; she wanted this as much as he did. He was making her feel things she had only ever read about in _Teen Witch_.

The first brush of his tongue inside her caused her to jump slightly in the chair, with a bit of a struggle she managed to kick off her panties and she spread her legs further, offering herself up to him. "Please," she groaned, not really sure exactly what she was asking for.

Licking his lips, Blaise took a stumbling step backwards and pulled Luna to her feet, careful to prevent her from banging her bruised hip again. He had no idea what he was doing, or why he was doing it, but the moment he had touched his fingers to her bare skin he had felt like he was burning up. He lowered his head and captured her lips with his own, his tongue pressing into her mouth and tasting the moist cavern mindlessly.

Luna wrapped her arms around Blaise's neck and held on tight as his mouth continued to rub sensuously against her own. She closed her eyes and whimpered when he pulled away from her to lift her into his arms.

"Where's your bedroom," he murmured into her ear, his voice hoarse with desire.

They sank down onto the bed in her girlish frilly bedroom and, surrounded by the cuddly toys of her childhood, Luna gave up her innocence without a thought for any possible consequences, able only to think about the pleasure coursing through her body.

/End Flashback/

"I didn't think that you were going to come," his voice echoed in the small cave as Luna walked into it out of the rain that had just started to pour.

"You have to leave me alone, Blaise," her voice was pleading, her eyes dark with tears. "I can't cope with this anymore."

"I don't understand you," he tugged on one of her hands, pulling her down onto the damp stone bench he was sitting on. "What are you afraid of?" When she flinched he made an effort to speak quieter, to calm her down.

"You're different. I wanted to believe that there was more to you than the green and silver," she flicked her hand at the Slytherin tie he was wearing. "I was wrong." She pulled her hand out of his grasp and covered her mouth and nose as a loud sneeze rocked her body.

"You weren't. This doesn't matter, Luna. I was sorted into Slytherin, that _isn't_ who I am." Angrily he ripped off the offending tie and threw it across the cave, resisting the urge to use _incendio_ on it. "In a few months this won't mean anything. I'll no longer be a student here." He grabbed her wrists and had to fight the urge he had to taste her, she was so beautiful and she had been made for him.

"You'll always be who you are, Blaise," she shook her head, sniffing back the tears that threatened to fall. She stood up and wrenched her wrists out of his grasp. "Leave me alone, please."

Ignoring him as he called after her, Luna ran back out into the rain, finally allowing the tears to fall. She gasped in pain as she slipped on the mud, getting up and continuing her desperate run back to the sanctuary of the school.

Blaise sat in the cave, watching as a violent storm raged outside, mirroring the turmoil going on inside. He picked up his house tie and glared at it angrily, frustration tying his stomach up in knots. She had left him, and it was all the fault of the stupid colours he wore during a school year. Desperation driving him, he wrapped the tie around his hands and began to pull it, grinning almost maniacally when the seams began to rip, the sound of cotton stretching and tearing satisfying to his ears.

Pulling a small picture out of his pocket, he stroked his thumb over Luna's smiling face. It would take time but he was going to prove to her that there was more to him than his house and the family loyalties that he had already chosen to ignore. It didn't matter how long it took; he had plenty of time.


End file.
